Jacob Barker (December 17, 1779 – December 26, 1871) was an American financier and lawyer. Early life He was born on December 17, 1779, in Swan Island, Maine, of Quaker parentage. He was the son of Robert Barker (1723–1780) and Sarah (née Folger) Gardner (1739–1833), who was born on Nantucket. His mother was a widow of Hezekiah Gardner, with whom she had a son, Gideon Gardner (1759–1832), who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. His parents married in April 1763. He also went by JB. Barker was an extended relation of Benjamin Franklin through his mother, who was a cousin of Franklin's mother, Abiah Folger Franklin (1667–1752), and grandfather Peter Folger. Career He went to New York at the age of 16, engaged in trade, and soon amassed a considerable fortune. In May 1811, he hired Connecticut native Fitz-Greene Halleck, who remained in his employ for twenty years. Early in the War of 1812 he was instrumental in securing a loan of $5,000,000 for the national government. In 1815, he founded the Exchange Bank of New York. He was a member of the New York State Senate in 1816, serving alongside Peter R. Livingston and Darius Crosby and representing the Southern District, which consisted of Dutchess, Kings, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties. Subsequently, he became interested in many other large financial institutions in the city, including the Life and Fire Insurance Company, on the failure of which in 1826 he, with a number of others, was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to defraud. At first he acted as his own lawyer, however, eventually eminent attorneys Benjamin F. Butler and Thomas Addis Emmet (1764–1827) were counsels for his defense. The jury disagreed on the first trial and convicted Barker on the second trial; but an appeal was granted and the indictment was finally quashed. Preservation of Lansdowne Portrait On August 23, 1814, First Lady Dolley Madison fulfilled U.S. President James Madison appeal to abandon the White House after rooftop observations confirming the British red coats approaching the horizon of the Executive Mansion. Dolley Madison directed Paul Jennings, gardener John McGraw, and John Sioussat to remove the Gilbert Stuart oil painting of Colonial America's First President George Washington from the East Room. After the removal of the iconic portrait from the White House event and reception room, the frameless life-size canvas painting was furnished to